Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis (2019)

Miles Davis, Yuko Mabuchi

Yuko Mabuchi, JJ Kirkpatrick, Del Atkins, Bobby Breton

Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis is a tribute to the music of legendary Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It features 5 tracks written by Miles Davis plus 3 original compositions by Yuko Mabuchi. For this special album, recorded live in concert in Stereo and Multichannel DSD 256 (and exclusively available in DSD 256 at NativeDSD Music), the Yuko Mabuchi Trio - Yuko Mabuchi (piano), Del Atkins (bass) and Bobby Breton (drums) - is joined by trumpeter JJ Kirkpatrick from the Sophisticated Lady Jazz Quartet (albums also available in DSD from NativeDSD Music). With this line-up of musicians, it is a musical adventure you won't want to miss.

Yuko Mabuchi’s debut recording on Yarlung, Yuko Mabuchi Trio, was a top seller in the Yarlung catalog and at the NativeDSD Music store last year. Yuko deserves this success.

Yuko Mabuchi Trio thrills audiences with every concert. Her January performance opening for Branford Marsalis in the 1,800 seat Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall whet international jazz appetites. She next headlined the Arlington Jazz Festival in Texas, and Yuko Mabuchi Trio performed in Blues Alley in April as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D. C. European and Asian stages beckon.

The Absolute Sound published a rave review of her recent concert at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, CA in January 2019. Elaborating further, Rick Brown writes “Yuko Mabuchi combines sexy athleticism at the piano with serious musical poetry. The young fans in the house responded to both with great enthusiasm. So did audience members in their 70s and 80s. This was a fast up tempo set resulting in thunderous applause with audience members yelling and stamping their feet for the standing ovation at the end…. I recognized some audience members who had driven from San Francisco or flown in from Hong Kong and different parts of the country for the event…. Yuko signed CDs and LPs at intermission with the longest lines I’ve seen in years…. She returned for another hour to greet audience members and sign more after the second half of the concert. “

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Yuko Mabuchi

Yuko Mabuchi moved to the United States from her native Japan only recently, but when she plays American jazz she speaks the language perfectly. I love Yuko’s sense of rhythm and melody, and her improvising feels like she was born in Detroit or New York City. Her technique reminds me of some of Yuko’s music idols like Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Monty Alexander. But beyond her talent for traditional jazz, one can also hear flavors of American R&B, Hip-Hop and Blues, which Yuko loved as a teenager. This album’s associate producer and Yarlung special advisor Billy Mitchell describes Yuko’s playing as “funky from the heart,” and he means that as an enormous compliment. Yuko was born in Fukui, on the west coast of Japan, north of Kyoto. She studied classical music and the piano starting at age four, and continued her studies at the AN Music School in Kyoto, where she was a jazz piano student of Kunihiro Kameda.

JJ Kirkpatrick

JJ Kirkpatrick, trumpet and flugelhorn, was born in Portland, Oregon. JJ began his diverse musical career at 9 when he scored the opening sequence to a 10-minute film he co-directed with his brother. JJ began playing trumpet that same year, studying with Portland legend Thara Memory. Mr. Kirkpatrick has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Tootie Heath, Beyonce, Craig Robinson, Louis CK among others, and works as a performer, composer and producer. Along with Andrew Boyle, Misha Bigos and Gary Wicks, JJ founded Sophisticated Lady jazz quartet. www.jjkirkpatrickmusic.com

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Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis (2019)

Miles Davis, Yuko Mabuchi

Yuko Mabuchi, JJ Kirkpatrick, Del Atkins, Bobby Breton

NativeDSD - 2019 Album of the Year - Jazz

In 2017, the Yuko Mabuchi Trio featuring Yuko Mabuchi on piano, Del Atkins on bass and Bobby Breton on drums released their first album on Yarlung. Recorded in Stereo and Multichannel DSD 256, the self-titled debut hit the #1 DSD Best Seller spot at NativeDSD and has been one of NativeDSD’s best-selling Jazz releases ever since.
This year, the trio returned with a special guest – trumpeter JJ Kirkpatrick – to bring NativeDSD listeners a tribute to the music of Miles Davis. The album features 5 tracks composed by Miles Davis plus 3 tributes to Davis penned by Yuko Mabuchi.
Whether you are listening in DSD Stereo (up to DSD 512) or DSD Multichannel (up to DSD 256), the music, performed live in concert, in a treat for any Jazz fan. Wonderful moments abound here from the trio and trumpeter Kirkpatrick seems right at home as well. What can I say? Yuko Mabuchi and her trio plus one have done it again.

Positive Feedback

Yuko Mabuchi, Bobby Breton, and Del Atkins, oh my! Behind the curtain is the wonderful wizard, himself, Bob Attiyeh, and with JJ Kirkpatrick, the wicked internationally acclaimed trumpet player. Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis is just like that...much better than superb. It is historic!
I listened to this concert performance over and over. It is compelling. It is lively. It is at times explosive. It is always original and filled with intensely new musical ideas from many old Miles favorites. Yuko Mabuchi plays so powerfully and rhythmically, like she owns this music, feels this music, believes this music. I could go cut by cut, but you understand if you like extraordinary jazz. This is the real deal.
Del Atkins bass is extreme, melodious, and new. He nails it over and over. When he solos you hear experience and love come together in the strings and explode. This is his best-recorded performance I know of. This is Ray Brown and more. I am very, very impressed and you will be too.
Bobby Breton finally cuts loose on Yarlung Records, at least the way I like it. He kicks it up and makes it happen. Finesse, power, and slam, it is all here, and great fun. This trio played at the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society Gala last December, and I sat a few feet away from them. Breton played exquisitely and rhythmically like a real pro, but here he makes the sun shine and the moon rise. What an artist and musician!
JJ Kirkpatric has matured and bloomed into a world-class trumpeter. His interpretations are 100% his. It is not Miles warmed over, not for a minute. I am a fan. I listened carefully and I buy into his thoughts and personal, heartfelt techniques. This is new, modern, exciting stuff and it will win your head and heart. When you hear these musicians and new interpretations just let it happen and flow.
Lean forward from your perfect listening position and lean into the recording venue. I kid you not. Textural layers have weight, authority, and drive. At a certain volume, try a bit louder or softer than usual, and the performers will pop into your listening space. The imaging is rounded and beyond precise. It is spot on mellifluous.
This is Attiyeh's best jazz recording effort to date. Van Gelder would have approved. It snuggles closely into an analog place, though it is a digital download. The warmth and weight of the instruments are so real, so right, Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis has become an audiophile jazz lover's reference as far as I am concerned. It is audiophile gold.
Yuko Mabuchi Plays Miles Davis is a winner. I declare it a reference for audiophile performance and musical entertainment. It is a must-own and necessary addition for your library of great recordings and system demonstrations. Probably the best all-around original music download I have ever acquired, period.
NativeDSD.com has Single, Double, and Quad DSD versions for sale and download at their site, in both stereo and multi-channel versions. DSD lovers should go there. Get Yours!

HiFi Choice -

I spent yesterday afternoon listening…. As anticipated, it is superb!
The Lullaby gently relaxes you into the environment of the Cammilleri Hall. Yuko’s sympathetic rendition of ‘So What’ took me a few moments to clue into Miles’ original performance, but when I got there, it was true to him, but with a freshness and energy that Yuko and her team imparted to the performance – wonderful stuff!
The remaining two tracks are a real homage to Miles Davis, but with Yuko’s individuality imprinted on her super compositions.

Neville Roberts

Native DSD Listener

I purchased Yuko Mabuchi plays Miles Davis in DSD 256 from NativeDSD Music. It is heavenly.
I'm glad I found the NativeDSD Music site. There are some real gems here.

These DSD 512 releases are all pure DSD created, they stayed in the DSD domain using professional software from Signalyst. They are not up samplings, for there are no PCM or DXD conversions involved in their production. They are re-modulations of the original DSD encoding modulations. The sonic advantage to these new Stereo DSD 512 releases, as with all higher DSD bit rate releases, is the wider frequency passband prior to the onset of modulation noise. This results in the listener’s DAC using gentler and more phase linear filters for playback of the music. Processed in the NativeDSD Mastering Lab by Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield, the resulting DSD 512 files are exclusively available at NativeDSD.com